Imaginary Conversations and Poems, by Walter Savage Landor

Essex and Spenser

Essex. Instantly on hearing of thy arrival from Ireland, I sent a message to thee, good Edmund, that I
might learn, from one so judicious and dispassionate as thou art, the real state of things in that distracted country;
it having pleased the queen’s Majesty to think of appointing me her deputy, in order to bring the rebellious to
submission.

Spenser. Wisely and well considered; but more worthily of her judgment than her affection. May your
lordship overcome, as you have ever done, the difficulties and dangers you foresee.

Essex. We grow weak by striking at random; and knowing that I must strike, and strike heavily, I would fain
see exactly where the stroke shall fall.

Now what tale have you for us?

Spenser. Interrogate me, my lord, that I may answer each question distinctly, my mind being in sad
confusion at what I have seen and undergone.

Essex. Give me thy account and opinion of these very affairs as thou leftest them; for I would rather know
one part well than all imperfectly; and the violences of which I have heard within the day surpass belief.

Essex. How! I have heard it reported that thy grounds are fertile, and thy mansion large and pleasant.

Spenser. If river and lake and meadow-ground and mountain could render any place the abode of pleasantness,
pleasant was mine, indeed!

On the lovely banks of Mulla I found deep contentment. Under the dark alders did I muse and meditate. Innocent hopes
were my gravest cares, and my playfullest fancy was with kindly wishes. Ah! surely of all cruelties the worst is to
extinguish our kindness. Mine is gone: I love the people and the land no longer. My lord, ask me not about them: I may
speak injuriously.

Spenser. The first seeds I sowed in the garden, ere the old castle was made habitable for my lovely bride,
were acorns from Penshurst. I planted a little oak before my mansion at the birth of each child. My sons, I said to
myself, shall often play in the shade of them when I am gone; and every year shall they take the measure of their
growth, as fondly as I take theirs.

Essex. Well, well; but let not this thought make thee weep so bitterly.

Spenser. Poison may ooze from beautiful plants; deadly grief from dearest reminiscences. I must
grieve, I must weep: it seems the law of God, and the only one that men are not disposed to contravene. In the
performance of this alone do they effectually aid one another.

Essex. Spenser! I wish I had at hand any arguments or persuasions of force sufficient to remove thy sorrow;
but, really, I am not in the habit of seeing men grieve at anything except the loss of favour at court, or of a hawk,
or of a buck-hound. And were I to swear out condolences to a man of thy discernment, in the same round, roll-call
phrases we employ with one another upon these occasions, I should be guilty, not of insincerity, but of insolence. True
grief hath ever something sacred in it; and, when it visiteth a wise man and a brave one, is most holy.

Nay, kiss not my hand: he whom God smiteth hath God with him. In His presence what am I?

Spenser. Never so great, my lord, as at this hour, when you see aright who is greater. May He guide your
counsels, and preserve your life and glory!

Essex. Where are thy friends? Are they with thee?

Spenser. Ah, where, indeed! Generous, true-hearted Philip! where art thou, whose presence was unto me peace
and safety; whose smile was contentment, and whose praise renown? My lord! I cannot but think of him among still
heavier losses: he was my earliest friend, and would have taught me wisdom.

Essex. Pastoral poetry, my dear Spenser, doth not require tears and lamentations. Dry thine eyes; rebuild
thine house: the queen and council, I venture to promise thee, will make ample amends for every evil thou hast
sustained. What! does that enforce thee to wail still louder?

Spenser. Pardon me, bear with me, most noble heart! I have lost what no council, no queen, no Essex, can
restore.

Essex. We will see that. There are other swords, and other arms to yield them, beside a Leicester’s and a
Raleigh’s. Others can crush their enemies, and serve their friends.

Spenser. O my sweet child! And of many so powerful, many so wise and so beneficent, was there none to save
thee? None, none!

Essex. I now perceive that thou lamentest what almost every father is destined to lament. Happiness must be
bought, although the payment may be delayed. Consider: the same calamity might have befallen thee here in London.
Neither the houses of ambassadors, nor the palaces of kings, nor the altars of God Himself, are asylums against death.
How do I know but under this very roof there may sleep some latent calamity, that in an instant shall cover with gloom
every inmate of the house, and every far dependent?

Spenser. God avert it!

Essex. Every day, every hour of the year, do hundreds mourn what thou mournest.

Spenser. Oh, no, no, no! Calamities there are around us; calamities there are all over the earth;
calamities there are in all seasons: but none in any season, none in any place, like mine.

Essex. So say all fathers, so say all husbands. Look at any old mansion-house, and let the sun shine as
gloriously as it may on the golden vanes, or the arms recently quartered over the gateway or the embayed window, and on
the happy pair that haply is toying at it: nevertheless, thou mayest say that of a certainty the same fabric hath seen
much sorrow within its chambers, and heard many wailings; and each time this was the heaviest stroke of all. Funerals
have passed along through the stout-hearted knights upon the wainscot, and amid the laughing nymphs upon the arras. Old
servants have shaken their heads, as if somebody had deceived them, when they found that beauty and nobility could
perish.

Edmund! the things that are too true pass by us as if they were not true at all; and when they have singled us out,
then only do they strike us. Thou and I must go too. Perhaps the next year may blow us away with its fallen leaves.

Spenser. For you, my lord, many years (I trust) are waiting: I never shall see those fallen leaves. No
leaf, no bud, will spring upon the earth before I sink into her breast for ever.

Essex. Thou, who art wiser than most men, shouldst bear with patience, equanimity, and courage what is
common to all.

Spenser. Enough, enough, enough! Have all men seen their infant burnt to ashes before their eyes?

Essex. Gracious God! Merciful Father! what is this?

Spenser. Burnt alive! burnt to ashes! burnt to ashes! The flames dart their serpent tongues through the
nursery window. I cannot quit thee, my Elizabeth! I cannot lay down our Edmund! Oh, these flames! They persecute, they
enthral me; they curl round my temples; they hiss upon my brain; they taunt me with their fierce, foul voices; they
carp at me, they wither me, they consume me, throwing back to me a little of life to roll and suffer in, with their
fangs upon me. Ask me, my lord, the things you wish to know from me: I may answer them; I am now composed again.
Command me, my gracious lord! I would yet serve you: soon I shall be unable. You have stooped to raise me up; you have
borne with me; you have pitied me, even like one not powerful. You have brought comfort, and will leave it with me, for
gratitude is comfort.

Oh! my memory stands all a-tiptoe on one burning point: when it drops from it, then it perishes. Spare me: ask me
nothing; let me weep before you in peace — the kindest act of greatness.

Essex. I should rather have dared to mount into the midst of the conflagration than I now dare entreat thee
not to weep. The tears that overflow thy heart, my Spenser, will staunch and heal it in their sacred stream; but not
without hope in God.

Spenser. My hope in God is that I may soon see again what He has taken from me. Amid the myriads of angels,
there is not one so beautiful; and even he (if there be any) who is appointed my guardian could never love me so. Ah!
these are idle thoughts, vain wanderings, distempered dreams. If there ever were guardian angels, he who so wanted one
— my helpless boy — would not have left these arms upon my knees.

Essex. God help and sustain thee, too gentle Spenser! I never will desert thee. But what am I? Great they
have called me! Alas, how powerless, then, and infantile is greatness in the presence of calamity!

Come, give me thy hand: let us walk up and down the gallery. Bravely done! I will envy no more a Sidney or a
Raleigh.